Boy Scouts dig

The section of the island is called "Old Marco," and the name may be more apt than many people realize. Just steps away from the Snook Inn at the north end of Bald Eagle Drive, Gene Erjavec led a group of Boy Scouts on a tour down into Marco Island's past, excavating their way down through the remains of 10,000 years of human habitation. The area is a hotbed of history. Just around the corner at what is now Vernon Place, the storied Key Marco Cat was unearthed in 1896 by a Smithsonian expedition led by Frank Cushing. The earliest modern settlement of Marco Island took place here, and the spot chosen for the dig once held the home of Ralph Doxee, whose family clam cannery provided a major early economic engine for Marco.